Daily Digest for June 11, 2020 Posted at 6:35 a.m. by Cody Nelson
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Good morning and here is your Thursday Capitol View.
Protesters in Minnesota pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the State Capitol amid continuing anger over the police killing of George Floyd. The protesters threw a rope around the 10-foot bronze statue and pulled it off its stone pedestal.
The state Supreme Court has upheld Minneapolis' sick time ordinance. David Montgomery reports: "Minneapolis is allowed to require paid sick leave for employees in the city, even those who work for businesses based outside of Minneapolis, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The 5-2 ruling rejects an appeal by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which argued that state law preempted cities such as Minneapolis from enacting paid leave. It also rejected the Chamber’s argument that Minneapolis could only regulate businesses that were based in the city."
The national police union head agrees his industry needs reform. "Just look at what's happening in our country right now," Patrick Yoes, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in an interview Wednesday with NPR's Morning Edition . "We have emotions that are so high on both sides of this issue. And in the middle, there's an area where we all agree, and I'm confident that we all agree that we need to have some reform. We need to have some discussions on how to improve what we're doing."
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo says the city is pulling out of negotiations for the police union contract. But as Jon Collins reports, it's likely to trigger a court battle: Community activists have long pointed to the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis as an obstacle to reform within the department. The union’s contract, which governs wages, benefits and work rules, has provisions that make it difficult for many firings of police officers to stick, Arradondo said."
Nancy Pelosi wants Confederate statues to be removed. NPR reports : "In an open letter to the Joint Committee on the Library, Pelosi asked Congress to 'lead by example' and remove 11 Confederate statues from the Capitol. 'The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation. Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed,' Pelosi wrote in the letter addressed to committee Chair Roy Blunt and Vice Chair Zoe Lofgren." |
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